Cracks in media's Benghazi attack blackout

This is a rush transcript from "The Five," October 8, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: So, this Libyan mess should be a major motion picture starring George Clooney. But don't count on it, funny how the people who normally care are now so very quiet. But there are cracks in the wall, as The Washington Post ombudsman admits the paper screwed up by chasing the anti-Muhammad video tail.

Why did the media blame the video instead of terror? Well, The Daily Beast explains that the administration cherry picked that reason despite evidence to the contrary.

Maybe that's why one day after the attack, an aide to Hillary said it was terrorism. Yet, Ambassador Susan Rice still blamed the mob. And CNN and the rest concurred.

So, why did they buy the lie? Well, one to downplay the resurgence of Al Qaeda, a strategy that put the election before protection. Which may be why Bob's suspenders were more secure than the consulate.

But maybe they want to believe the lie. Governed by the ideology of hurt feelings, it's the West that's the root of all evil, not actual evil. America is always a bad guy, even if the other guy threw the first punch.

So, our whole foreign policy is anti-bullying ad for smaller, meaner countries. Obama spent his entire term raising awareness of how cool is it to blame America first. It's hipster diplomacy at its worst.

And so, you have incompetence in tandem. A bicycle of bias built for two featuring the administration and its adoring media peddling the same tripe. It's no wonder they would rather discuss Big Bird than Benghazi. Why ruffle any real feathers?

So, I want to go to a SOT of Mitt Romney talking about this video that the administration blamed earlier today at VMI.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: This latest assault can't be blamed on reprehensible video insulting Islam, despite the administration's attempts to convince us of that for so long. No, as the administration has finally conceded, these attacks were the deliberate work of terrorists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: OK, Eric, do you remember he came out about the Egyptian embassy and said they're not doing. Then he got a lot of heat. Isn't he -- hasn't he been proven right?

ERIC BOLLING, CO-HOST: Vindicated, yes.

GUTFELD: Yes.

BOLLING: In fact, the left was complaining about the timing. He's interfering with President Obama handling of the crisis and turns out President Obama should have listened to him.

GUTFELD: Exactly.

BOLLING: But, you know, again, what's the surprise here? The left is going to -- anything that President Obama does is right thing to do. Anything that Romney does is always interfering.

DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: The strange thing is being -- having been vindicated, the media still goes back to the narrative that Mitt Romney really fumbled that foreign policy issue three weeks ago, instead of looking at the real issue, which is what all of us have been asking -- which is why do they blame the video? It doesn't make any sense.

If you were in a country where you had state-controlled media, that excuse would have been something everyone swallowed. But when you have a free media and you are able to have independent thought and you're looking at this, you're saying this can't possibly be true, and yet, still, they're not focusing in on -- even the news reports today concerned about not having enough security after being asked, nobody is asking that question where did they get this idea that it was all to be blamed on the video?

KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, CO-HOST: Oh, my goodness. You have been hanging out with Greg Gutfeld.

GUTFELD: I know.

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: I'm getting converts to my cult. I want to go to this other SOT. This is former security team commander, Andrew Wood, spoke to CBS about the issues with security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW WOOD, FORMER U.S. SECURITY TEAM: For continued security, that we had, that we had known, that we had come to live with and work with there, for the environment we had, we felt we needed more, not less.

REPORTER: So, all the experts on the ground are telling headquarters at the State Department, we need this. And the answer kept coming back as --

WOOD: You got to do with less, for what reasons I don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: That's pretty harsh, Kimberly.

GUILFOYLE: No, it's not. This is the problem with this administration, it's gross incompetence and naivete, because they're not interested in really focusing in on the reality of the situation that we face them in the world today overseas. And he said that it was like -- it felt like we're being asked to play the piano with two fingers. There is concern amongst the entire embassy staff, 34 security personnel moved six months prior to terrorist attack.

How can you not say this is epic fail on his watch, on the watch of the president, on the watch of the State Department? It is. That's enough right there to tell you he's not ready for prime time.

Yes, bin Laden is dead, but the rest of the world is burning. There's a huge problem here and there's a deficit of leadership.

BOB BECKEL, CO-HOST: The whole place is burning.

GUILFOYLE: It is. Just watch the news.

BECKEL: Just a couple of points. Let me make to correct my good friend Dana here, but they are state-controlled media in virtually all those countries where the --

PERINO: No, I said it was here.

BECKEL: No, you were talking about here? I'm sorry.

PERINO: Saying they can't use the excuse.

BECKEL: You're talking about here? I'm sorry, I thought you were talking about there.

OK. First of all, I would say that Wood makes some good points, he said it would be better if finally for once somebody would come out and say who it is that they talk to, that told them they couldn't have more security, one.

Two, the idea that somehow the media and when, Greg, you said that Obama and media blamed the West first, that we are the great horrors in the world. I really doubt that to be an accurate statement. I mean, do you think they get, CBS, ABC and NBC get on the phone in the morning with the White House and decide this is what we're going to do? This is our plan? How they're going to do that?

GUTFELD: They don't have to. They went to the same school, Bob. They're all taking the same classes.

BECKEL: And they all think that the West is responsible --

GUTFELD: Every -- 90 percent of the professors in academia think that way.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLLING: Can I point something out, Bob? When we first speculating that we thought this is going to get bigger and there maybe some sort of paper trail, maybe trace, you said, well, I'm not sure there's anyone who admits to that. Now, we have people on camera saying, yes, we did request more security. We were denied it.

Now you say you want to know exactly who they --

GUILFOYLE: The State Department.

BOLLING: How many more pieces of evidence before you finally say, yes (INAUDIBLE) and it's been cover-up?

BECKEL: Well, you got -- first of all, cover-up is inconceivable idea in something this big. But --

GUILFOYLE: Well, it's incompetence or it's a cover-up?

BECKEL: It may be incompetence. We'll find out during those hearings. But the idea that somehow that this was collusion of people coming together, there had to be at least 200 or 300 coming up with a conspiracy. It's just the most ridiculous, uninformed comment --

BOLLING: Ambassador Rice goes on five talk shows five days after we all know she knew it was not in response --

BECKEL: She did not know.

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: Why didn't she know?

BECKEL: Well, the question is -- you think Ambassador Rice participated in a cover-up?

GUILFOYLE: She was given her marching orders --

BOLLING: Highly unlikely that that is the case.

BECKEL: Ambassador Rice -- just for the record --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLLING: I think there will be a smoking gun e-mail at some point that proves all of this.

GUILFOYLE: Yes. They threw them under the bus and she had to give talking points to try and cover for the administration.

BECKEL: So, you're saying, too, there was a cover-up?

GUILFOYLE: Bob, come on, I'm giving you options.

PERINO: It's either that or it's gross incompetence.

BOLLING: I'll say it. I think it's a cover-up.

GUILFOYLE: I think it's both.

GUTFELD: It's cover-up of gross incompetence.

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: Because, I mean this memo where they have options and they choose to say it's the video and blaming it on a memo that just appeared. It smells funny.

BECKEL: Just like you don't like the video thing, you want to know who get about the video, I would just like one person, just one on the record to say --

GUILFOYLE: OK, let me tell you something. You're going to have the House Oversight Committee is going to hear this. You had Lieutenant Colonel Andy Wood asking for it. You have State Department regional security officer, Eric Nordstrom, and you have Ambassador Stevens all making repeated requests to keep security there. It was all denied by the State Department, Obama's State Department, Hillary Clinton.

BECKEL: How do you know?

GUILFOYLE: Have you read the research?

BECKEL: I read the research, too.

GUILFOYLE: This isn't speculation.

BECKEL: It is speculation.

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